Behind His Smile
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Mikey hid a lot of things behind his smile. He just couldn't help it. After all no well adjusted teenager could be thrown into another world and not even blink. He hid his wounds. His scars. But most of all he hid his heart. Mikey/OC Rated M for a reason
1. Chapter 1

**Yo- this is my first Digimon Fusion story, so be patient with me. **

**First off, I'll be using the English names for the characters since the Japanese versions give me a headache. **

**Secondly, Mikey and the others will be about 14-15 yrs old in this. **

**And third, there will also be an OC whom Mikey is in love with. However- you won't know much about her until later on. ****Until then he'll drop some occasional hints about her here and there. At least until she shows up. And then there will be some lemon's or flashbacks to lemons. Whatever I can use in the story. **

**Also this takes place sometime between episodes 'Dorulumon's True Colors' and 'Ice To See You Angie' where everyone has decided to take a breather and learn a little more about their general Mikey. **

**At last but not least; constructive criticism is cool. As long as you're not abusive with your words- you won't offend. So be honest. And at the same time, flames will not be tolerated. Period. **

**So R&R, k.**

**Enjoy.**

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It all started with a question. A simple innocent question made out of curiosity by one of the digimon. "Hey Mikey, we've been wondering..." Warm gunmetal grey eyes shifted from the scenery to look over at the group of digimon that he and the others had made friends with as said curious digimon continued to awkwardly plow on through his question. "Well, you see- I've been meaning to ask you something since you first appeared here in the digital world-"

"My favorite color is red or blue depending on the day of the week. I paint my fingernails when I'm either pissed or depressed. And my favorite food is pizza." Okay, he was being a little bit of a smartass here but in his defense his digimon partner, Shoutmon, had pretty much walked right into that one. There were a few snickers. Mostly from Jeremy and Cutemon.

Who both found themselves on the receiving end of a dark look from Shoutmon who then tried again, "That's not what I wanted to ask you, but thanks for the info. I'm sure the painting fingernails part will be perfect blackmail material," This time Mikey's grey eyes narrowed slightly at the back of Shoutmon's head. His usually calm and collected faced slipping just a tad as Mikey thought, _You better not use that info for anything so nefarious- _He would hate to wind up pushing the little guy off of the nearest cliff or something.

Truly he would.

"I've been meaning to have a sit down with you and the rest of the Fusion Fighters team and see if we could get to know you a little better. Ya know, talk and stuff." Shoutmon said before going on to say, "I mean we know that you're our general. And you're a good friend to those who become your friends- but we don't really know much else about you aside from the fact that you're human and the info you just gave us. So I was wondering if maybe we could fix that?"

_Ah-_ Mikey thought, so that was it. They wanted to get a better feel for him and his personality as well as learn what they could about his strengths and weaknesses. Sort of like a Pow-Wow at a summer camp.

Mikey thought it over for several moments, not realizing that the digimon were all waiting for him to say something about the idea. Their eyes were each glued to him as he sighed. Deciding that it would be alright as long as they didn't ask anything too invasive. And even if they did, he would probably ignore their question and just move on to the next one.

But then he was good at that. Ignoring questions that is.

He had conditioned himself to ignore questions almost as much as others had once ignored the sight of blood on his hands and clothing...

Mikey mentally shook himself as soon as the thought crossed his mind and lifted his hands up and slapped himself when the image of himself kneeling on the sidewalk outside of a bookstore, with the slender body he'd held so tightly in his arms that day- refused to leave his mind. The resulting sting of flesh meeting flesh had done it's job and brought him back to the here and now.

But at the same time it had also called the attention of the others in a way that he felt very uncomfortable with. So doing as he usually did to ignore the stares and curious questions he just knew he was about to be bombarded with- he smiled slightly and said. "Sure Shoutmon. When do you want to do this?"

_Please be tonight, please be tonight, please be tonight- _He chanted over and over in his mind as Shoutmon grinned his goofy little grin and said, "Is later tonight okay? We could grab some food and start a bon fire and just sit around and do our thing." Almost looking relieved, Mikey gave the little digimon a kind smile and put his gloved hand on his little head and rubbed it.

Almost like one would do with a small child to ruffle their hair in affection.

"Later is fine," Mikey said as he looked up, then away and for the briefest moment caught a glimpse of Angie and Jeremy's concerned looks out of the corner of his eye before saying in as calm a tone as he could despite his rising panic, "Come find me later. I'm going to go grab a nap somewhere." And then quickly took off like a shot through the trees and bushes.

Hopefully if he was lucky enough he'd get lost and they wouldn't be able to find him for the next day or so.


	2. Chapter 2

Once there was no trace of Mikey, Dorulumon made a soft humming sound before turning his unblinking amber eyes to Shoutmon and saying. "Is it just me or is our general not too keen on what you suggested?" Shoutmon glanced at their newest fighting companion and sighed. Man Dorulumon was a sharp one. Perhaps even sharper than himself.

"No. I noticed it too." He admitted, thinking back to the last fight that he and the others had been in. There had been a moment- there just after the defeat of the enemy- when he had noticed something strange about Mikey. Something hidden in the depths of his human's eyes. Something that had sent a sudden chill of fear washing over him.

But the look had been masked so quickly that at first he had thought he had imagined it. Until... He had come across Angie and Jeremy slowly but subtly moving away from his soul brother when they had started to travel again.

Now he might not be the greatest mind in the digital world, but even _he_ had been able to pick up on the kids anxiousness and concern. "There's something wrong with Mikey." He finally said the words he'd been dreading, aloud as he glanced around for a second be fore noting with a vexed little sigh- That yup, Jeremy and Angie were both gone as well.

The kids must have beat a hasty retreat once Mikey had left. Probably because they had known that he might decide to ask them a few things too. Like what was up with the secret covert looks and whispering when they thought Mikey wasn't paying attention.

Dorulumon finally blinked his wide amber eyes as his little friend Cutemon grabbed onto his fur and climbed a little closer to his head. The young one's expression, curious enough that Dorulumon could tell what he was thinking. And it must have been something along the lines of Mikey+something wrong=need of healing. And he might have been right, if Mikey was wounded in some way.

But Dorulumon didn't think things were quite that simple.

Since the first time he had met the Fusion Fighters and their red general- he had made it a habit of sorts to learn their scent. As it was, he could already tell a lot about the other two humans from their scent. But Mikey... It was strange. His scent didn't change any when he was hurt or scared. At least it hadn't before a few minutes ago when Shoutmon had been talking to him.

One second Dorulumon had been able to smell the amusement on him- the next he smelled- well, sort of smokey and bitter. Almost as if he were afraid. But then the smell had seemed to lessen a bit before he had run off. So maybe Mikey was somehow trying to hide something from them all by manipulating his emotions in some way.

But he'd be the first creature to have ever succeeded since Dorulumon knew of no other creature alive capable of doing such things. Human or otherwise.

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"Oh man-" Jeremy groaned as he and Angie both hid themselves in the trees a ways away, panting from their mad dash away from the digimon that they'd all made friends. "I thought we were gonners for sure that time." He said, referring to the slight shift in atmosphere around their childhood friend a few moments ago. God Mikey had looked...well like Mikey, but a drastically colder Mikey.

For a moment that had been far too quickly for either him of Angie to gauge, Mikey had looked like he had three months ago when his long time girlfriend had been hit by a car. He'd just looked like he was about to lose his head and do something that he'd likely regret later. So naturally when he had remained calm, he and Angie had decided that it was time to cut and run.

A calm Mikey after all was either one of two things, completely capable of murder, or just mellowed out. They weren't about to take any chances that Mikey had been feeling the first.

"I know-" Angie wheezed as she leaned back against her tree trunk and internally tried to slow her heartbeat while counting her breaths. "I kept thinking, 'Oh god, Mikey's going to freak!' Ya know?"

"Yeah I know." Jeremy muttered as he finally managed to catch his breath as he tried to think of what to do later tonight to take the pressure off of Mikey before the whole Fusion Fighter's team wound up in a world of hurt.


	3. Chapter 3

The moment Mikey felt he was far enough away from his friends not to be bothered, he dropped to the ground and buried his hands in his hair. And tried not to think of what Shoutmon and the others were going to be asking him later that day. There was after all a reason_ why_ he kept his private life private. It was because he didn't like talking about his family. Or his friends. Or his hobbies and some of the other slightly unsavory activities he had taken part in around the time he'd met and started dating his girlfriend.

He didn't want to talk about asking his girlfriend to marry him (because he'd adored her so much that he could hardly wait to grow up just to be with her). Nor mention that they had been living together and sleeping together for several years now. Nor did he want to speak about how things between himself and his girlfriend had been going nicely.

So nicely that when he had found out that he was going to be a father soon.

He'd been so happy that he had gone out that very same day and had bought a little silver ring with a carved flower rainbow moonstone ring with three small white diamonds in the middle of it, and given it to her to use as an engagement ring until he was old enough to get a job and buy one for her.

One in a half months after that he had decided to take her out on a date.

A nice romantic one complete with flowers, a movie, and dinner. Unfortunately for them both, that had also been the day that she had been hit by a car while trying to cross the road to meet him after coming out of a store that she often stopped by to get treats for them both.

The driver hadn't even seen her until it was too late to even tap the brake.

The moment her body had made impact- time had seemed to reduce speed to a stand still. Mikey didn't recall much aside from hearing the sick sound of flesh and bone smacking into speeding metal and seeing his love's body going airborn and for a horrifying second- all he could sense beyond that was the sound of someone screaming. Only to realize much later that it had been him as the car came to a sudden and abrupt stop and his girlfriend's body hit the asphalt and rolled to a stop as his brain had finally kicked into gear again and he had run to her.

Silently praying that she was still alive.

She had suffered multiple broken bones and hairline fractures throughout her body on top of internal bleeding in her stomach- a ruptured spleen, and kidney- as well as a collapsed lung from a rib.

He'd sat there, his mind a haze of panic and fear- trying his best to help her while she had bled and tried to keep herself alive. He wasn't sure if she had done so out of desperation to continue living, or out of desperation to save the small part of them both that she had carried. The ride with her to the hospital had definitely done a number on his nerves.

Especially since her heart had stopped twice before they reached their destination.

And all he recalled of that dark time was swearing to her, in tears, that if she died- he'd follow her.

Thank god the medical staff at the hospital she'd been taken too was competent and had managed to not only stabilize her condition after twelve hours of surgery. But miraculously the doctors had also managed to save not just her life, but their baby's too. However due to the extent of her injuries she had been in the hospital for almost a month. Something that he hadn't exactly liked since it meant he would be separated from her for a while... But he hadn't made a fuss about that since her health was still in jeopardy.

Sighing, he pushed all thoughts of everything pertaining to her and his feelings towards her aside.

He felt trapped by Shoutmon and the other digimon's need to get to know him better. But he hadn't been able to say no to his friends request because he understood very well that each of them were trusting him with their lives and wanted to know more about the person who could more or less get them killed if he made a mistake.

Still... He disliked feeling as he did right now. But couldn't help himself from thinking maybe, hopefully, things wouldn't be as bad as he thought they would be.


	4. Chapter 4

A few hours later-

Mikey was unaware for the most part of how long he must have sat on the ground, curled in on himself. Trying to make himself seem so much smaller and less noticeable than he really was as he tried to calm himself. To find his center. A little bit of serenity before he put himself before the firing squad so to speak.

And after what must have been several hours of...well, mostly undisturbed peace and quiet- he had finally managed to pull himself together and knew that it was time to go find the others before they came looking for him.

Sighing, he slowly unfolded his long legs and winced slightly as he felt little pin pricks running through his limbs and took a moment or so to let the sensation fade before bothering to try and stand up.

It was finally time to return to the others.

Anxious to get things over with, he stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and started walking in the direction he had come. Knowing Shoutmon and the others like he did, he'd more than likely find everyone somewhere close by.

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"Is Mikey still missing?" Shoutmon asked Angie and Jeremy with a combination of worry, anxiousness, and trepidation. And for good reason, she thought to herself as she looked out over the grassy open field that had been picked for todays little Pow-Wow. And noted that just beyond the tree line- the sun was starting to go down.

Jeremy stopped playing with Cutemon for a moment and glanced at her before opening his mouth and said seriously, "Listen Shoutmon... I'm not sure what exactly you want to know about Mikey- but you need to steer clear of too many questions about back home."

All of the digimon looked at him strangely.

Even the quiet, and somewhat reclusive Dorulumon whom had been dozing for the past hour or so, opened his amber colored eyes and looked at Jeremy with more than a calculating look as Shoutmon frowned and started to open his mouth to ask _'why'_ when Mikey broke through the thicket just a few feet away and walked up behind Jeremy, cracking his knuckles menacingly.

Angie started to smile when Mikey reared back his fist and without warning- punched Jeremy in the back of the head as hard as he could. Causing the other teen to yelp and almost kiss the ground before he twisted around to glare at Mikey. Who glared back and put his hand against Jeremy's nape and squeezed threateningly as he gave his old friend a fake smile and put a finger against his lips to indicate he desired silence from him.

To say that the digimon found the exchange peculiar of the normally non violent human that they had made their general, would be an understatement. "When I ask for silence from someone... What do I expect Jeremy?" Mikey asked pleasantly.

The brunette growled a bit before mumbling, "I was just trying to cover for you-"

"Did I ask you too?" Mikey cut in rudely.

Jeremy sighed in frustration then replied. _"No."_

"Then next time keep your yap-trap shut." The human general growled out as he let go of Jeremy's nape and instead shifted his hand through his friend's hair until it was on top of his head and ruffled the hair over the spot that he'd hit just a few moments ago. "Now. Are we going to do this or not?" He asked with his usual goofy grin.

The digimon all were silent for a moment as Shoutmon glanced around at the others, his eyes pausing to linger for a moment on Dorulumon who nodded his head in silent agreement.

Their general and his two human friends were hiding something from them. And from the way that Angie and Jeremy sometimes acted around Mikey- whatever it was that they were hiding- made Mikey dangerous. Potentially unstable and self destructive maybe. And there was no room for such things within their team. Not when they already had an entire army of baddies just looking to destroy them.

"Sure," Shoutmon said as Mikey found a nice spot close to the little stack of wood that he had been about to set on fire with one of his dragon-like attacks. "Just let me light the fire and we'll get started," He said as he watched Mikey curl his legs at the knee and rest his chin on them and watched quietly as Shoutmon started the fire then meandered over to Mikey and threw himself down on the ground next to the teen with a grin. "Okay, lets get this party started. Anyone got any questions?"

Mikey smothered an amused laugh as everyone else groaned at Shoutmon's antics.

How like the little red dragon type digimon to pull something like this without really thinking things through.


	5. Chapter 5

**Dude- I know my story probably isn't the best there is, but I am trying. **

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_Everything is going according to plan_, Shoutmon thought to himself as someone else asked how Mikey had become so good at strategy and such. To which his human partner replied in his usual laid back way, "I'm sort of a geek. Have been ever since I was a little kid. I play chess, video games that make you analyze and strategize ways on how to defeat your enemy. But I've also made a major habit of immersing myself in books about ancient and modern warfare."

"Wait a second," Jeremy said as he pointed at Mikey. "If you've studied things on ancient warfare and such- Don't tell me that that's how you won that kendo match against me!"

"Okay, I won't tell you," Mikey deadpanned before going on to say as a slow an evil smirk crossed his handsome face. "But just so you know, reading about samurai's was _f-u-n_. Fun. I can probably take out an entire army battalion alone with just a good katana blade and some good old fashioned psychological warfare."

Jeremy's jaw dropped open a second before he started shaking, his dark eyes tearing up as he stared at his childhood friend/rival. Good god if Mikey had been actually doing what he just claimed he'd done then his skills in combat were the equivalent of a frigging ninja Jounin!

It's no wonder people didn't piss Mikey off or try to bully him anymore. _He'd probably fucking kill them!_ Jeremy thought as he flopped back on the ground and pretended that he was dead as Mikey rubbed at the back of his neck and looked from face to face and asked awkwardly, "Anyone else?"

"Oh! Oh! Me, me, me, me! I have a question!" Starmon said as he jumped around for a second. Mikey pointed at him and he grinned. "If you've been studying warfare and stuff since you were little, shouldn't you be a general or something in your world?"

"No," Mikey said somberly. "Military ranks, much like a number of other things, are only given to adults who have proven themselves to be the best of the best. I'm still just a kid. I may like reading up on the stuff and learning about it- but I myself dislike violence of any kind. However despite my age, I do understand what it means to engage in a battle that could very well kill you and everyone you know and love. As well as destroy everything that you've ever known."

"Oh? What could a kid like you really understand about war?" Dorulumon said almost rudely when Angie reached out and put her hand on top of his head and absently scratched him behind the ear as she said in a very calm tone,

"That's a very cruel question to ask. Especially of Mikey. He wasn't born in japan like Jeremy and I were. He was born overseas where his father was stationed on a military base. He was an lieutenant in the navy. He had just returned home from a mission for the holidays... Mikey must have been about two or three; everyone was gathered, they were playing games and laughing when they heard the planes flying over head-"

"Angie stop-" Mikey said abruptly, interrupting her as he hugged his knees a little tighter against his chest. "Just stop." He said more quietly, his voice barely above a whisper as he stared into the flames directly ahead of him as his heart ached.

He didn't want her to continue. He didn't want to remember how they had all heard airplanes outside and thought it was a drill and gone out to watch. He didn't want to recall being placed on top of his dad's shoulders. Or watching the planes pass overhead for a good fire minutes before everything went up in a hail of gunfire and explosions.

He didn't want to recall the shock and the horror he'd felt. Or how his dad had automatically hidden him in an effort to protect him before going for his mom before a bomb had been dropped on the house.

He didn't want to relive the chaos that had lasted for what seemed like an eternity and ripped away the only family he'd ever known for the first three years of his life. It wasn't right that he was asked that question. So he simply wouldn't answer it.

"Something happened, didn't it." Shoutmon stated. Not really asking what had happened, more like telling that _something_ had happened despite the lack of information he had.

"Mikey's parents were killed in an attack on the military base along with twenty eight other families and over two hundred soldiers." Jeremy said as his friend closed his eyes and let his breath out in a slow hiss.

"_What. The. Fuck-_ I asked you not to say anything." He snapped angrily as he glared at Jeremy. The urge to jump to his feet and lay the other boy out flat with a good punch or two, burning through his chest.

His friend gave him a small, sad smile. "They need to know, Mikey..." The words, _They need to know why you fight_, was left unsaid between the two boys as Dorulumon sighed and looked away.

_Crap!_ He was an idiot for opening his big mouth when he should have just been content to listen. Now he knew that Mikey was an orphan he wouldn't be able to leave the kid alone regardless of how the war with Bagra turned out. It simply wasn't in his nature to leave orphans and cute little bunny rabbit/fairy type digimon without a guardian. "Sorry kid. I was out of line with that question." Dorulumon said after a moment or so, the sound of his voice breaking the tension between Mikey and Jeremy.

Mikey glared at Jeremy for a second or so longer, his gaze promising a painful sort of retaliation later on before he finally glanced at the large wolf type digimon and said, "Forget about it." Which the digimon all knew was easier said than done as their general fell silent and seemed to close himself off from them, thus ending their little gathering for now.

_Well-_ Shoutmon thought, feeling more than a little bit disappointed.

That hadn't been part of the plan...


	6. Chapter 6

**Dude- I know my story probably isn't the best there is, but I am trying. Seriously...**

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The next two days passed with relative ease for the kids and their digimon friends. With the exception of course of the peculiar exchanges between the kids. Mikey had been as silent as a grave for an entire day in a half while they moved to another zone and he seemed to just suddenly perk up when they found themselves in the cliff zone.

A zone full of nothing but tall mountains, and uber steep cliffs where after making shelter and finding enough food for everyone, Mikey had at several points in time asked Jeremy to go for a walk with him for some 'male bonding' which he had then excluded anybody else from going with them.

And upon hearing this, Angie had placed herself firmly between the two teens and growled at Jeremy not to go. He might regret it if he did. Curious to see how things would play out between the three, the digimon had sat back and watched Mikey repeatedly try to lure Jeremy away from everyone before realizing that maybe- just maybe Angie had been right to tell Jeremy not to go with Mikey for a walk.

The cliff zone was dangerous. Not only that but Angie seemed to know something was off with Mikey before anyone else had even picked up on the subtle vibes of malice emanating from the Fushion Fighter's general.

But after trying so many times to lure Jeremy away and getting nowhere fast, Mikey's temper started to show a bit. The end result being a shouting match between him and Angie that had utterly captivated the digimon. Seriously, that was not a show anyone of them should miss under any circumstances.

"All I want is to take a walk with Jeremy!" Mikey growled at Angie who was standing between him and the other teen, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him before yelling back.

"Well tough! Do you really think I don't know what's going through your mind right now? I wasn't born yesterday, nor am I stupid Mikey. I know that the second you get Jeremy away from here your going to find the highest, steepest cliff in the whole zone and push him off of it!"

"What?!" Mikey shouted at her, trying to look offended but failing. The silly girl knew him too well by far. "I would never-" He started to say but let his voice trail off so that it could be left open to interpretation.

He may never cheat on his school exams, or his taxes...exct. But Angie was right. The second he had Jeremy alone he did plan to push him off of a cliff. In fact since coming to the cliff zone it had been the only thought sustaining him. He was still just so pissed at Jeremy for the shit that had happened the other night that he didn't really care if he wound up hurting him.

As far as Mikey was concerned, the teen should bleed. Especially since he'd had nightmares that night and woke up covered in a fine sheen of sweat, feeling so sick to his stomach that he had spent several minutes under a tree a good ways away puking.

"Oh please," Angie snapped. "You wouldn't push Jeremy off a cliff any more than I know you'd break someone's kneecaps with a baseball bat. Is that what you were planning to say? Cause if so it's the wrong argument to use since you had to go to juvy for doing just that four years ago."

"Hey-" Mikey shouted angrily as he recalled the incident Angie had just mentioned. It had all started with one of their classmates being bullied and then hooked onto drugs by some older kids. The kid in question, Riku, had been Mikey's closest friend four years ago. He had also been so strung out and shit that the second his family had found out and put him in rehab...he had hung himself. And while Angie felt justified with this particular argument, she wasn't. "Those bastards deserved to have the shit beat out of them! They caused Riku's death with their bullying and drugs and shit. So I think some broken kneecaps and some time spent reflecting on what they had done- was the very least they could do!"

That seemed to take Angie aback for a moment. But just for a moment before she sighed and said, "Well Jeremy didn't kill anyone. Besides you'd feel guilty if you hurt him."

Mikey snorted. _Yeah right. _He thought darkly before hissing, "Not damn likely."

"Yes you would. Just like you'd feel bad about pushing me off of a cliff." Angie said, sounding very sure of her reasoning while it was on the tip of Mikey's tongue to say, _'Then come along and you can join him.' _

However kept his mouth shut. Let Angie think what she wanted. But he'd feel no guilt whatsoever if he pushed either of them or both of them off of a cliff. And with his silence, the argument died down and everyone seemed to begin to relax a bit. Which was a mistake since Mikey was far from finished with Jeremy. But since he couldn't lure him away without nosey nelly butting in, he'd just have to wait until everyone was asleep and then sting the boy up in a tree and leave him there.


	7. Chapter 7

As fate or luck or whatever you might call it went- Mikey was given no true opportunity to string Jeremy up in a tree. Which was good for Jeremy, but somewhat frustrating for Mikey.

So for the time being he had to put his anger towards the mouthy dumbass on the back burner in his mind which then occupied itself with other things. More pleasant things. Such things being, wondering what his girl back home was doing right then. He'd been worried about her ever since the first few days he and the others had been in the digital world with their new friends.

He knew that she likely knew something was up otherwise he would have been visiting her regularly everyday like he usually had since the accident. Was she pissed at him for disappearing without a word, He wondered as he walked in between Shoutmon and Dorulumon.

Both of who had taken up the ranking of his second in command and his bodyguard.

Both of which Mikey secretly understood and felt was hilarious. Shoutmaon, as his partner digimon he knew what he was thinking. But for Dorulumon to up and out of the blue- just decide that he needed a bodyguard... Well to say that Mikey was tempted to show the wolf like digimon the error of his ways would be an understatement. But since things were unstable as far as the digimon's relationships with him and his friends- he felt it best at the moment to simply humor the two.

So he left them alone and let them run themselves ragged trying to do whatever job they had set themselves up for while silently observing (and yes at times, laughing at them) as they moved.

Mikey was still somewhat lost in thought when he felt Dorulumon brush up against his side and nudge him to gain his attention. Mikey glanced down at the wolf digimon before Dorulumon asked, "Is something wrong? You're very quiet today." As if just really starting to notice just how quiet he really was.

Mikey reached out and rubbed the digimon behind the ear. Quietly letting him know that everything was fine.

Well, as fine as things could be with him stuck in a world of digital murderous and homicidal digital monsters out to end him and his friends anyways. They had been walking for a good while when they made it to a nice secluded area in the woods of the cliff zone, when Mikey sighed and suddenly said. "Guys let's stop here for a bit and rest."

Everyone looked at him funny with the exception of Angie and Jeremy, both of whom had started to notice the faint signs of fatigue that were beginning to show through Mikey's usually carefully controlled facade. The dark smudge like circles under his eyes, and his paling skin should have given his current condition away to all of them. But since the other two kids had known him longer than the digimon- then it only stood the reason that they knew what to look for.

"But Mikey, we need to move on to another zone." Shoutmon started to argue when Angie placed her hand on the little dragon digimon's shoulder and shook her head as Mikey meandered over to a nice shadey spot under a tree and dropped down to the ground and leaned back against the trunk of the tree and drew one leg up against his chest and rested and arm on his knee.

Shoutmon opened his mouth to say more when Jeremy walked over and asked in a tone barely above a whisper, "How long do you think he's been going without sleep?"

"Must have been a while now. This is an unfamiliar world after all. And he is the reason that we're here. So couple that with the fact that there are evil digimon who'd gladly see us all dead..." Angie said, letting her sentence trail off a bit. Jeremy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he gritted his teeth. _Damn. _He should have known that Mikey would lose sleep.

After all Mikey was responsible for their lives. One screw up from him and they were all dead. And that was a lot of fucking pressure for a teenage kid to cope with. Especially when he had enough back home to worry about- and he didn't really _need_ to worry about anything else. At this rate he was likely to have a nervous breakdown or something.

"Is everything okay?" Cutemon asked as he jumped down off of Dorulumon's back as the wolf brushed past the kids and walked over to Mikey and stared up at the red general curiously. Mikey's gaze flickered to the small pixie like digimon and he gave him a tight lipped smile then reached out and picked the youngster up and set him in his lap and tickled his sides. Causing the kid to squeal and squirm and laugh until he couldn't breathe.

Chuckling once he had the pixie digimon twitching and wheezing, Mikey set his limp body on the ground and ran his hand along the digimon's downy soft fur. "Everything is fine. I'm just a bit tired." Mikey confessed softly as Shoutmon walked up to him and sat down on the other side of his human partner. His sapphire blue eyes studying Mikey's face, noting that he did look a little on the tired side. Frowning to himself for not noticing sooner, he scooted a little closer to his human and leaned his shoulder against the teen's side.

Causing him to pull his gaze away from Cutemon to look at him as Shoutmon said, "Ya know, I'm suddenly feeling kind of tired myself. Maybe we could take a nap or something."

"Sure man." Mikey said.

"I'm game." Dorulumon said eagerly despite not actually being tired. As Cutmon finally jumped up and ran over to him as he laid down and waited for the smaller digimon to curl up against his side before he slipped one of his front paws around him to keep him warm since the little digimon was apparently like Angie and had circulation problems or something.

Angie stifled a yawn behind one hand and looked at Jeremy who followed her lead as she flopped over and said. "I'm sort of sleepy too."

"Yeah me too." Jeremy hesitantly said before dropping to the ground next to her. And with that the rest of the digimon fell in line and each crowded in close and made a place for themselves around Mikey and the others.


	8. Chapter 8

Humans were funny little things, Shoutmon thought to himself as he stared more or less blankly at his human companion's face while he slept.

It had been about an hour in a half since Mikey had announced that he wished to rest a bit and then picked his current place under the tree he was currently slumped against, the two of them so partially surrounded by the other kids and digimon- that Shoutmon felt almost as if he were suffocating. Which was why he was just sitting there. With more than a little excess energy to burn.

The same excess energy that he had been pulling from Mikey ever since he had appeared in the digital world.

And so with some extra time on his hands, Shoutmon had decided that until his companion and their friends all woke up and started to move on to the next zone, he would tap into the human world's vast information highway. That strange thing called the 'internet' and begin looking up more information on Mikey, Angie and Jeremy and their world.

Thinking he'd learn more from a specific point in time- Shoutmon began almost a month before he had met Mikey and the other two kids, using satellite images and stored up data on various computer systems and such that were saved in the vast information highway to both 'see' and 'hear' Mikey and what his life had been like _before_ they had met.

What he got was a little more than he bargained for. Which was no real surprise since he was more or less peeping into the private affairs of his human.

_"Kira. What would you like for dinner today?" Mikey asked as he walked down the street beside a girl with long dark hair. His hand holding onto the girl's. His gunmetal grey eyes staring adoringly down at the girl. _

_"Whatever is fine." The girl, Kira replied._

Apparently the girl, Kira, was it? She wasn't much of a picky eater. Shoutmon noted before thinking, _How weird is that?_ Even he proved to be a picky eater a lot of the time. It was why he used the partial default of taking some of Mikey's energy from him. That way if anything happened and he'd gone a long time without food or rest- he was still capable of defending himself and the others.

And since Mikey's energy was uncharacteristically strong for a human- it didn't hurt the kid any. Which was good since that was the absolute last thing that Shoutmon wanted to do to his companion. And yet... Here of late he had noticed that Mikey wasn't resting like the rest of them did. When they made camp, he would separate himself from the group and find himself a nice dark place with a few trees at his back. And he would sit there all night, scanning their surroundings.

So maybe because Mikey was starting to show signs of being overly worn down, he should stop pulling energy from him until he was feeling better.

But that was neither here nor there since he suddenly found himself very curious about Mikey and Kira's relationship.

_He heard Mikey make a 'tsking' sound as he let go of the girl's hand and slipped an arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her close to him. "That's no good. You need to be a bit more picky- all things considered," He said as he looked down at Kira again, this time his gaze was lower. Although how low Shoutmon couldn't exactly say as Mikey continued to speak. "After all, you need all kinds of vitamins and stuff now." _

_"Can we please not get into this again?" Kira almost whined. A small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. _

_"What do you mean 'get into this again'?" Mikey asked as he stopped walking, his expression changing somewhat from adoring to scowl at her. "There's nothing wrong with me wanting my girl and our unborn child to have what I know they need! After all being a parent is hard work." _

Shoutmon blinked and quickly disconnected himself from the internet of the human world for a moment as he wondered exactly what he had just opened himself up too and after a moment or so of deliberation, carefully extracted himself from Mikey's grasp and quietly moved over to Dorulumon and tapped the wolf digimon on the tip of his nose to wake him even when he should have known that he wasn't asleep.

Dorulumon cracked open an eye and glared at him for a moment before exhaling a deep breath and asking, "What?"

"What do you know about kids?"

Dorulumon blinked at him and lifted his head from his front paw, his expression somewhat curious as he stared Shoutmon in the eye before replying. "Not much. Unless you count Cutemon but then he's a young adolescent... He's almost an adult really." Which was true. But due to his size and how he often showed the wolf digimon that he had the attention span of a child- Dorulumon tended to treat him like one.

Shoutmon scowled at the larger digimon for a second and wished his fur would catch fire. Wasn't he supposed to be helping? He wondered when Dorulumon's voice cut into his thoughts like a knife. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Shoutmon lied as he quickly looked away from the others unblinking amber stare. Apparently not willing to divulge in telling him what had spurred this sudden interest in younglings.

"Really? You woke me up and asked me a strange question for no reason at all." Dorulumon said in a tone that told Shoutmon that he didn't believe a damn word out of his mouth.

"Yeah. So?"

"I'd be careful about lying and mouthing off to someone like me if I were you. You might wind up with your head being chewed on." Dorulumon growled at him warningly, making sure to show off his long, sharp pointy teeth as he did so. Trying to intimidate Shoutmon. He had to give the little guy props though, the normal intimidation tactics obviously wouldn't work on him. So if he wanted answers he may just have to tap into the human world's network of information and backtrack Shoutmon's digital signature to find out what was up with him.

The only problem was- he had enough on his mind as is and wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle what he learned or not...


End file.
